The Music Announces Local Journalism Project

The Music today announced the creation of a hyper-local news project, funding new part-time journalism positions in five Australian states to uncover the local news, artists and blossoming scenes that are underpinning the growth of our underground music culture.

The project will find five part-time journalists with ears to the ground who will advocate for the music, businesses, and industry events that are making a difference in their local communities and shine a light on the areas of the industry that are currently without a voice.

The Music will also undergo a tech upgrade, providing new regionalised opportunities to connect local communities with local content and more personalised stories to be served on their web platform and daily newsletter. The new journalists will begin in September. If you think you might fit the bill, head to our Jobs page.

“The heart of The Music is in serving Australian music, and it’s time to go back to our roots in street press to discover what makes our audience tick,” said The Music Publisher Stephen Green.

“That means being relevant to the communities we serve, and we are excited to be undertaking this project to bring more diverse voices from across the country into our editorial meetings.

“We are proud of our market-leading position in delivering the national and international news Australians want to read every day. Strengthening our depth of coverage to give an even more local experience for readers and a pipeline for local talent and industry is part of our DNA and to be able to deliver this in challenging times make it even more culturally important than ever.”

The project, assisted in part by the Australian Government through Music Australia and Creative Australia, comes at a time when music journalism has never been under more threat, with this week’s closure of Pilerats and staff layoffs across many titles, including Pedestrian.

The Music last week announced the first of their ‘The Music Sessions’ series, a unique artist & fan experience to listen to new albums ahead of their release, with the first event featuring Fanning Dempsey National Park interviewed live with Richard Kingsmill.

The publication also launched the street press archives earlier this year, bringing decades of music journalism from dusty archives onto the internet, where the content can be searched, enjoyed and rediscovered for the next generation of music fans.